About Me

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A New Friend !

Can someone turn on the heat please ! It is SO cold outside today! Even in the freezing temperatures we had a brave new friend start school with us today. The little girl with Malia in the picture below is Andrea. Andrea is Daniel's cousin. Andrea is taking Danny's place.

I love watching the kids play with the light table and the mirror !

Kayla was so proud of her outfit today .

Nolan and Dillion sorted the color wheels at the light table without being asked. This is how " learning while we play " works. The kids start to do things without being promoted. They are naturally curious.

William playing in the water table.

We took out new pet themed puzzles today.

Randy reading a book with Nolan .

Another natural progression of play. The kids extend what I talk about in circle time to their play. I walked in the room and the girls were in there and had set up a little " pet grooming " shop.

Furby's ! Remember these ? I know they aren't real pets but Ive been itching to get them out !

Andreas first painting at school.

I love how the veteran kiddos put their arms around the new friends and welcome them in.

Rainy Day toys came out today! When it is not possible for us to go outside ( and that doesnt happen very often ) we still provide gross motor play !

For art today the kids were prompted to make a kitten puppet. I took these two pictures to show you something . By looking at these two cat pictures one might assume that the child's picture on the left is younger or a boy and the one on the right might be an older child and a girl. Both of these pictures were colored by boys that will be going to kindergarten next year. And actually the one on the left started writing his name long before the one on the right. Some kids just LIKE to color or write and for some it is far too boring and they just want to get finished. That was the case here. When I look at these pictures I dont think one child is more advanced than the other , I just see that one wanted to color and one didnt. Eventually, the boys ( and girls ) will need to get to a point that they have the patience to follow the task through and to the best of their ability - but not in preschool. Exposure is all the activity was for them. We did use them later to sing the " Three Little Kittens " . The kids sometimes LOVE this type of activity. Some never will... we are all different. Kids are all different. The old saying is you can't judge a book by it's cover. In this case, you can't judge a preschooler by his coloring skills .

1 comment:

I love, love, love this point about the coloring pictures! Right on! I see you have bowling, egg and spoon races, and balance boards for rainy day activities. What else do you do? I have a bowling set buried somewhere I will have to get out. We have a tunnel,wrist ribbons, a balance beam, and parachute. We play a lot of duck duck goose and musical chairs. I need to get some more things in this area.